BRUSSELS — Ever since Deng Xiaoping's aphorism "Black cat, white cat, who cares as long as it can catch mice" was burned into Chinese souls by the successive horrors of the Great Leap Forward, its resulting famine and the Cultural Revolution's shambolic savagery, China has seen 10 percent-plus growth rates for three decades.
While China's population has grown by a third, its economy has grown 13 times, meaning that per-capita GDP is up by a factor of 10. The consequence is a cascade of goods from China flooding global markets, gifting enormous gains to Europeans as consumers while menacing their role as producers.
The overall balance of interests is misrepresented by the asymmetrical response. Jobs lost trigger demonstrations and demands for quotas, bans and retaliation, while no one marches to celebrate dramatically cheaper goods in the shops and the extra jobs created by the new spending inspired by these savings.